China's property sector grows 8.8 pct in Q3

BEIJING, Oct. 20-- The property sector saw a year-on-year growth of 8.8 percent in the third quarter of this year, according to official data released on Thursday.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the GDPfigures of different industries on Thursday morning. The data showed the property sector's GDP expanded 8.9 percent in the first three quarters to reach 3.5 trillion yuan (520 billion U.S. dollars).

Investment in the property sector rose 5.8 percent year on year in the first nine months, higher than 5.4 percent posted in the first eight months, and 5.3 percent posted for the January-July period, according to data released on Wednesday.

Amid the investment frenzy, over a dozen Chinese cities have introduced measures to cool overheated markets, which led to marked drops in sales.

While a drop in housing sales will add downward pressure on the economy, we do not really foresee a risk of sharp investment slowdown, and in the coming quarter China's monetary policy will be less aggressive than estimated, Zhou Hao, Senior EM Economist Asia with Commerzbank, said in a research note.

Thursday's data also showed the finance sector grew 5.6 percent in the third quarter and 6.3 percent in the first three quarters.

China's GDP growth remained at 6.7 percent in the third quarter, which kept the country on track to meet the government's target of 6.5 to 7 percent growth for the year. The economy expanded 6.9 percent in 2015, the slowest pace in a quarter of a century.